“It is also intended that ARM will remain an independent business within Softbank, and continue to be headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom”, said Son.
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Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of the Japanese firm, said: “We have long admired ARM as a world renowned and highly respected technology company that is by some distance the market-leader in its field”.
The Japanese company will retain ARM’s headquarters in Cambridge and plans to double the number of employees in the United Kingdom over the next five years, when it will also increase the company’s headcount outside the United Kingdom.
The man who helped spin ARM Holdings out from Acorn Computers in 1990 also said the technology firm had sold 15 billion microchips in 2015, which was more than USA rival Intel had sold in its entire history.
The British company’s customers shipped “about 15 billion ARM-based chips” in 2015, up nearly a quarter year-on-year, according to the group’s website. Softbank has raised almost 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) in cash over the last few months through asset disposals.Analysts had expected it to use the cash to reduce debt or buy back shares.
“SoftBank has given assurances that it will invest considerably in the business, including maintaining ARM’s unique culture and business model”.
Shares in the FTSE 100 company, founded in 1990 in Cambridge and floated on the stock market eight years later, soared 486p to 1675p after it recommended an all-cash offer of 1700p-a-share, representing a 43 per cent premium to its previous closing price.
The Cambridge-based firm designs microchips used in most smartphones, including Apple’s and Samsung’s.
Japanese markets were closed for a national holiday Monday, so trading Tuesday showed the first market reaction in Tokyo to news of SoftBank’s acquisition of ARM, which was announced Monday.
He added: “Just three weeks after the referendum decision, it shows that Britain has lost none of its allure to global investors”. The “Internet of things” is growing big time, ‘ he said. “I’m surprised ARM wasn’t purchased sooner”, Moorhead added.
As the majority owner of Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) and Softbank Mobile, Softbank has networks through which it can do deals that involve far more than mere chip sales, and the expertise acquired in making that happen should bring it deals in other geographies.
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Before the announcement of the ARM deal, an analyst at a foreign credit rating agency said SoftBank’s rating could be lowered if it made another major acquisition.
